INT. NOVELIST'S HOME OFFICE - DAY
If the big window view to the up-close Organ Mountains is the front of the room, then the old wooden desk facing it is at the back of the room near open door to hallway. San Luis Obispo High and old school California Angels baseball caps on rack near the door. Map (TBD) on wall behind desk attended by wooden swivel chair with padded seat.
Loaded bookshelf against wall between desk and window across room from old leather sofa under a framed print of an Ad Reinhardt "Red Painting." Navajo rug on hardwood. Stool and telescope in corner where bookshelf meets window, potted young Saguaro cactus between window and sofa.
Printer on stand adjacent to desk populated by globe, old baseball, stack of yellow legal pads near pens and pencils in NMSU coffee mug, framed photograph of Chloe smiling at the camera from where is "tubed" in the jade-green wave she is surfing, and a computer open to text we cannot discern other than FADE IN at top of page before it gives way to screensaver: Chloe and HUNTER, 50-ish - the H.C. Hardyn on Gil's Foglost's about-the-author page - smiling wildly from where they sit in the front of a roller-coaster in motion.
Hunter, 50 - jeans, running shoes, raglan-style shirt (grey body, blue sleeves) - enters from hall, leans to close file and power down the computer. He leaves into hall.
INT. KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER
State of the art appliances, stone counter and center island, Saltillo tile. View into adjacent dining room and, through the window over the sink, the shaded patio and smallish xeriscaped yard bordered by a low stone wall on which a roadrunner rests. Door from dining room to patio featuring grill and table with four chairs. Stack of mail, bananas in a wooden bowl on center island.
Calendar on the refrigerator turned to July and features a picture of a girl who would be correctly identified as Chloe at 10, smiling at the camera with a fireworks "sparkler" in each hand, the night sky above and behind her lit with exploding fireworks. The boxes of the days are checked off to the 19th. CHLOE in blue pen populates the 20th, the remaining days empty.
Hunter,enters from hall, gets half-empty plastic water bottle from fridge, finishes in two swallows, crushes empty bottle, puts it in plastic bag filled with recyclables he gets from closet. He ties off the bag, leaves into hall.